The adjacent photo is a cricket my eldest son Joseph took home from Morton Arboretum over the weekend. We went out there to see the Big Bugs exhibit, which stays until mid-July. What we found when we got there, though, was day-long family fun that allowed both my kids and the adults to explore nature in a hands-on kind of way.
Denise Payton is often recognized. From her time at Easter Seals to CASA to her current role as case manager for the Will County Children's Advocacy Center, she has created a career in nonprofit management that she said grew from her time as a volunteer.
On May 28, she spoke to the attendees of the Plainfield Chamber of Commerce Women You Should Know luncheon.
In addition to encouraging the attendees to fit volunteering into their schedule, she gave tips to us on how to make volunteering more possible.
Like many other little girls, when I was younger, I had dreams of being a prima ballerina. I loved the stage and I loved to dance. My accomodating mother signed me up for jazz, tap and ballet classes, and I loved them. Despite these moments of grace and elegant movement, I am, at heart, rather klutzy. Growing up, I remember at least one time that I fell over the banister of the front stoop and landed in the thorny bushes. I think I was trying to do gymnastics.
Not much has changed in my older years. I have moments of grace followed by moments of sheer humiliation. So it was on Saturday afternoon.
Maybe I am crazy or maybe it was the spring air, but when I took my dog out to the park Monday night, for our first long walk of the season, I think I could safely say I was lost - lost on a disc golf course.
Most people who know me already know this, but for those of you who do not know me personally, I have a problem. I am addicted to buying purses. At any given time, I probably have enough purses to start a rental business and still have my own choice of styles.
Although I am a big fan of Coach purses, a purse does not have to be designer for me to want it. It does not have to be expensive. In fact, it does not even have to be new.
I have a dog. He's a really sweet, loyal, golden retriever mix. I am not a dog person, but Zen has wriggled his way into my heart. Having said that, though, Zen has some bad habits.
When I met John Sullivan of Bark Busters for our story that ran April 30, he was training Mookie, a nearly two-year-old Yorkie. Mookie lived alone in his home with his human parents and no children. And Mookie, being a Yorkie, is a small dog. Although his jumping on visitors is rude, it is not dangerous.
Zen, on the other hand, weighs in at more than 60 pounds. He lives in a house with two children under the age of 10. When he goes running full force to greet my youngest and jumps to lick him, he knocks him head over teakettle.
Dawn Aulet is a woman, a writer, a wife and a mother. Often, the lens
through which she sees the world is colored by these roles, but not
always. Sometimes, her experiences have less to do with her roles and
more with the frustration of being a consumer, the need to put gas in
her car or the realization that the world does not have any obligation
to deliver what she expects.
In this blog, she intends to open the readers' eyes to the wonders of
the earth, which in her world includes eating and shopping, of course.
Expect moments of enlightenment that are interrupted and ruined by
moments of frustration. For, among her many roles, she shares one with
you, she's human.
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About this Archive
This page is a archive of recent entries written by Dawn Aulet in May 2008.
Dawn Aulet is a woman, a writer, a wife and a mother. Often, the lens
through which she sees the world is colored by these roles, but not
always. Sometimes, her experiences have less to do with her roles and
more with the frustration of being a consumer, the need to put gas in
her car or the realization that the world does not have any obligation
to deliver what she expects.